Storm bird: this 22-second video of a barnacle goose flying in heavy rain is pure bliss

These majestic birds spend winter in south-west Scotland, commuting daily between feeding areas and roost sites.

Ben Hoare

Published: February 5, 2025 at 9:29 am

Time for a much-needed good news story. The barnacle geese that spend winter in south-west Scotland appear to have recovered after a third of this population died of bird flu in 2020-21.

Spectacular, yapping flocks of these lovely geese, which breed on Svalbard, a remote Arctic archipelago, commute daily between feeding areas along the Dumfries and Cumbrian coast and roost sites in the muddy Solway Firth.

Watch one soar in this gorgeous slow-motion video.

Escape to the skies: barnacle goose in flight/Getty

Main image and video: barnacle goose/Getty

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Ben Hoare

Science writer and author, and editorial consultant, BBC Wildlife

Ben Hoare is a wildlife writer and editor, and proud to be an all-round ‘nature nerd’. He was features editor at BBC Wildlife magazine from 2008 to 2018, and after that its editorial consultant. Ben writes about seasonal natural-history highlights in every issue of the magazine, and also contributes longer conservation stories. His interviews of everyone’s hero Sir David Attenborough remain a career highlight. When not working for magazines, Ben writes illustrated natural-history books for children – the kind of books he adored looking at as a kid. Several have been international bestsellers, no doubt because his two daughters read and test everything first. Ben lives in rural Somerset, UK, with owls and dormice in the garden, and is a keen birder who spends as much time as possible exploring outdoors.

Storm bird: this 22-second video of a barnacle goose flying in heavy rain is pure bliss

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Storm bird: this 22-second video of a barnacle goose flying in heavy rain is pure bliss

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